The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 26, 2025

Two Beauties

late 1700s–early 1800s

Kitao Shigemasa

(Japanese, 1739–1819)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
hanging scroll, pillar painting: ink and color on silk
Painting only: 104.8 x 15.5 cm (41 1/4 x 6 1/8 in.); Including mounting: 175.3 x 32.7 cm (69 x 12 7/8 in.)
The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith 1985.274
Location: Not on view

Description

Shigemasa favored using colors in broad opaque masses, as seen here in the beauties’ robes. He was a painter, printmaker, and poet, specializing in courtesan and actor prints. The format of this hanging scroll or "pillar painting" allows for the work to be hung on a pillar in a Japanese home.
  • (David Newman, London, UK, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith)
    ? before 1977–1985
    The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1985–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • “Checklist of the Kelvin Smith Bequest.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 292–295. Mentioned: p. 294 www.jstor.org
    Jenkins, Donald. “Paintings of the Floating World.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 244–278. Reproduced: pl. VII www.jstor.org
  • Visions of Japan: Prints and Paintings from Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2004-April 10, 2005).
    A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988).
    Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984).
  • {{cite web|title=Two Beauties|url=false|author=Kitao Shigemasa|year=late 1700s–early 1800s|access-date=26 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.274